


From the Highest Mountain to the Deepest Sea

by HellHathNoFury



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate take on ep 83, And they had to get out themselves, Canon Divergence, F/F, The Deceiver's Stand, What would have happened if Keyleth hadn't spotted them in the water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 22:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16334696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HellHathNoFury/pseuds/HellHathNoFury
Summary: Kima has always been good at surviving; the Underdark, half a dozen dragons, more undead than you can possibly count, but it seems her luck might have just run out. Being stuck in the middle of the ocean in full plate armor is not something you just smash your way out of. No, this time she might actually have a bit of a problem...





	From the Highest Mountain to the Deepest Sea

_ Fuck _

There was a split-second after Kima had stepped through the portal that she feared she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She had known something was wrong but she had no idea what. Magic wasn’t her forte. All she knew was that Allura had disappeared and that she might need her help.

What she hadn’t considered before, was that the faulty portal could literally take them anywhere. It could take them to the moon, drop them inside fifty feet of solid ice or into an active volcano, there was no way to know. What she did know that it probably wouldn’t take them anywhere good. Rogue portals rarely tended to drop you in an ice cream shop, now did they? If something was powerful enough to mess with Allura’s magic, she doubted they had good intentions.

Well, there was no way to go back now. And as the harsh, volatile magic bit into her skin, threatening to tear her apart, Kima realized that even if she had known certain death was on the other side of the portal, she still would have gone through. Allura had.

Her split-second ruminations were cut short when the magic faltered, and she found falling through the air.

As she looked down, she realized this was much, much worse than certain death. 

Beneath her, the blue-gray waves churned and roared, seemingly without end. 

She hit the water with a loud splash, her armor weighing her down like an anchor, immediately threatening to pull her under. She fought against the weight, breaking the surface, gasping for air.

‘Kima!’

_ Allura _ . Thank Bahamut, at least they had ended up in the same place.

‘Allie!’ Kima called out, desperately trying to keep her head above water. 

‘Kima, where are you?’ Allura yelled, sounding closer than she had been before.

‘Here! I’m here,’ Kima answered, paddling towards the sound of Allura’s voice as best as she could. 

The waves were wild, tossing them around, forcing water down their throats and obscuring their vision.

Halflings were a burrowing people, and while she was usually quick to squash any generalizations about her people, she had to admit that she much preferred the ground to the water. She simply wasn’t made for swimming.

Kima coughed to rid her lungs of the latest gulp of salt water. The same armor that usually kept her alive, was rapidly turning into a deathtrap, dragging her down, ready to take her all the way to the bottom if she would let it.

The first flash of golden hair invigorated Kima, giving her enough energy to make her way over to Allura and cling to her like letting go would mean death, which she was pretty damn sure it would, given their current circumstances. 

‘I got you. I got you,’ Allura panted, putting her hands under Kima’s arms and doing her best to keep her head above the surface.

It eased the load a little, but Kima knew that the both of them were far too tired to keep it up for long. They needed to get out of the water, and quick. She only had to stop treading water for a second for her head to disappear underneath the waves. 

‘Just hold on to me, okay?’ Allura said, a hint of desperation sounding through above the roaring of the water and wind. She turned Kima around in her arms, so her front was pressed to Kima’s back, using her own body to keep Kima afloat. ‘I just need a second to think. We’ll get out of here.’

‘Allie, my armor,’ Kima coughed as the weight of it threatened to drag her underneath the waves once again

She would have taken it off herself by now but as soon as she started to use her arms for anything other than swimming she started to sink. The chances of ever recovering her armor from the bottom of the ocean where slim, but she would rather face Vord’s wrath about losing yet another set than have it be her shroud for the rest of eternity.

Allura’s fingers slipped beneath her armor, searching for familiar clasps and buckles but the combination of the slick seawater, the weight and the continuous movements of both the sea and Kima herself made it impossible to slide them free.

‘They won’t budge,’ Allura cried, the notes of panic in the normally calm woman’s voice doing more to scare Kima than the waves around them did.

Kima bit her lip. ‘Allie, you have to let me go. I am only dragging you down.’

In response, Allura’s grip on her only tightened. ‘If you think I am going to let you go, you are stupider than a basilisk’s behind, Lady Kima of Vord,’ Allura huffed, some of that steel Kima loves so much creeping back into Allura’s voice. ‘Save your self-sacrificing tendencies for another fight.’

Despite the situation, Kima chuckled. She should have known Allura would never fall for that. Yet, she knew she had to try, she would never forgive herself if something happened to Allura because of her.

They floated along the tops of the waves for a few moments, trying to catch their breath and come up with a plan.

Kima had nothing, this was not a problem she could cut or slam her way through.

‘If I could just remember…’ Allura muttered.

‘Remember what?’ Kima asked, kicking her legs out to keep her head above water, feeling her strength wane quickly. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up.

‘Water breathing. I know I passed it in my spellbook this morning…’ Allura fell silent for a moment, searching through the many acres of mental storage she had for the right words and motions to complete the spell.

Kima felt one of Allura’s hands leave her as it began to trace unseen symbols through the air, whispered words in a strange language passed by her ear. Blue sparks of magic began to weave around them, and she knew that if she could see Allura’s eyes, they would have been colored the same solid blue.

Allura stopped chanting, and the sparks faded.

‘Did it work?’ Kima asked, now barely keeping her head above water, her muscles screaming in protest. She was so tired.

‘Only one way to find out,’ Allura said, spinning Kima around in her arms, so they were face to face again. With that, they took one last gulp of air and then stopped swimming, sinking beneath the waves.

The salt stung her eyes, but she didn’t want to close them in fear of losing Allura in the water. She held her breath for as long as she could but eventually the burning in her lungs became too much, and she instinctively gasped for air, only for her mouth and lungs to fill with salt, stinging water instead. Salt, stinging water that she could breathe!

It was strange, more like drinking than breathing, but the pain in her lungs ceased, and as they slowly floated down towards the ocean floor it started to feel almost normal. 

They were alive, and Allura had bought them some time to figure things out so they might actually stay that way.

‘Are you okay?’ Allura asked, and it took Kima a second to realize why that was weird. They were underwater, yet Allura’s words were heard loud and clear. No, not heard, they just appeared right inside her mind. Right, magic.

‘You can answer,’ Allura added, her lips moving as she formed the words, but the sound just echoed in her head.

Kima looked up, the ocean surface shimmering far above them, her armor doing a great job of dragging them down now they were no longer fighting it. As she looked down, the bottom was still shrouded in darkness, they really were in the middle of the fucking ocean.

‘I’m not usually one for swimming, but this is kind of nice,’ Kima grinned.

Allura squeezed her hand and laughed. 

‘So what do we do now?’ Kima asked, or tried to ask. All that came out of her mouth was just bubbles, and by the look on Allura’s face, they weren’t understandable bubbles.

There was a momentary spark of blue in the darkness as Allura cast another spell.

‘I’m sorry, I am the only who can start talking. You can reply, 25 words or less. What did you say?’

‘I asked what we are going to do, now we are not at an immediate risk for drowning.’

They had disappeared so far underneath the ocean’s surface by now that she could no longer see Allura’s face, the glow of her magic the only light.

‘Well, I know this is not really the time or place, but I think me might need to undress to make swimming easier.’

Kima chuckled, a weird sensation underwater. ‘Yeah, definitely not the time or place, but probably smart. Also, could you get some light in here, it is getting dark.’

‘I could, but it might attract some large aquatic life, and we are no state to fight off anything more dangerous than a dolphin.’

Kima’s reply about Allura needing to speak for herself, and that she could at least take on a killer whale, was cut off when they touched down on the seafloor. They had officially reached the bottom.

She threw her head back, looking up towards the surface. She could see the faint glimmer of light so far up it made her dizzy, but other than that they were shrouded in pitch black. Never before had she lamented her inability to see in the dark as much as she did right now.

‘Kiem, I am quickly running out of magic to do anything to help us, but someone needs to keep an eye out, so, here.’

There was a light press against Kima’s brow, and on instinct she closed her eyes. Allura shifted her thumbs over to Kima’s eyelids. Even with closed eyes, she could see the bright blue glow of Allura’s magic. Once the light faded, and Kima opened her eyes, she could see slightly more of the ground than she could before. Anything further away than about 10 feet was still concealed in the complete darkness of the ocean floor, but it was better than nothing.

‘Now, give me your dagger, please,’ Allura said stretching out her hand.

‘What do you want it for?’ Kima asked as she pulled the blade out of her boot and carefully pressed the hilt into Allura’s palm, knowing she couldn’t see well.

If Allura replied, she didn’t hear it, because the next thing she knew was Allura slipping the knife between the metal plates on her shoulder and cut the leather straps keeping her armor on.

Kima would have protested more about that course of action if she had been able to speak and if Allura wasn’t blindly handling a knife close to her skin.

She stood perfectly still until her breastplate dropped into the sand like an anchor.

Once the knife was far enough away from any important parts of her body, she snatched it back out of Allura’s hands. Waving her arms in the hope of getting Allura to cast another Message spell.

‘I’m sorry, but-’

Kima cut her off. ‘What in the Nine Hells, Allura?! I need that armor! I don’t care that it is heavy, I happened to like it! You don’t see me cutting your dress off you! And no you’re not getting this back, I will take the other pieces off normally, thank you very much.’

‘Okay, I got about half of that. I am sorry, but the buckles are stuck and your breastplate is heavy.’

Another blue glow as Allura cast the spell again, realizing she needed more words to say what she needed. ‘Also, stop whining. Once we are back on dry land I can fix your armor in less than five minutes.’

‘But we need to get there first… Yeah, I get it.’ She took the dagger and cut the rest of her armor straps, gathering the pieces into a pile.

She was about to ask Allura to hand over her bag of holding to store it when she remembered that Allura could neither hear nor see her. Gods, this only speaking when spoken to was quickly getting annoying.

‘Just hold the bag upside down when you put your armor in. I don’t want to flood it with half the ocean.’

‘Yeah, fine,’ Kima sighed, stowing her armor into the enchanted bag.

‘Sword too, Kima,’ Allura said, starting to undo the laces at the front of her dress. Her clothes might not be as heavy as Kima’s armor, but Allura’s dress and cloak had soaked up the water like a sponge, making it hard to move in none the less. And if they were in for a long swim, which it seemed they were, less weight was preferred. That didn’t mean Kima wasn’t going to put up a fight about her sword.

‘Allie, c’mon! I need it to protect us! You said yourself you were running low on magic. What if that dolphin attacks, huh?’

‘That sword is about half your body weight, Kima. It will only hinder you when swimming. Besides, you can’t swing it underwater anyway.’

The fact that it was impossible for Allura to see her facial expression didn’t stop Kima from glaring at her as she thrust the sword into the bag.

‘If it is any consolation, you can keep the dagger,’ Allura said, stuffing her cloak, dress, and boots into the bag as well. It left her in just the thin chemise she wore underneath.

‘Great. It will be huge help…’

Allura ignored her sulking and went back to the matter at hand. Now they weren’t as encumbered as before, they had started to drift up a little. ‘How tired are you? Too tired to swim?’

Kima shrugged before remembering Allura couldn’t see that. ‘I could swim for a while, especially now without the armor, you?’

‘I’m pretty spent, both physically and magically. So I needed to know for our next course of action. You’re not going to like it…’

Kima narrowed her eyes. ‘What is it?’

* * *

‘You’re right! I do not like this!’ Kima yelled, squeezing Allura’s hand so hard she was afraid she was going to break a bone. Allura didn’t complain.

They were a couple hundred feet above the water’s surface, and Kima absolutely would rather be drowning. The strong ocean wind was whipping them about like they were seafoam, and it did nothing to make Kima feel more secure.

Allura had spent the last of her magic to make them fly.

Kima had to agree it was a smart plan, from this high up they could try and find land, and then make a decent dash towards it while still in the air. The spell would most likely not last long enough to get them all the way there, but they were still under the influence of Water Breathing, so swimming the rest of the way there would be relatively safe. That didn’t change the fact that Kima was deadly afraid of heights.

Heights didn’t tend to care that she carried a big sword, nor were they particularly vulnerable to hitting or yelling threats. So no, heights were easily Kima’s least favorite enemy.

‘Kima, look! Land!’ Allura started to laugh, pointing at a small swatch of land visible on the horizon.

Allura took a few more seconds to establish the island’s cardinal direction, then enveloped Kima in a tight hug and started to float them down towards the waves at a gentle angle.

The hug was both because Allura was happy, and to prevent Kima from looking down. Kima appreciated it.

She didn’t open her eyes until she could feel the ocean spray on her face again. Allura had dropped them back to sea level again, which meant they could no longer see the island, but that Kima could open her eyes again.

‘Thank you,’ Kima said, loosening her grip on Allura’s hand, giving a soft squeeze.

‘Alright, I would say we have about five more minutes on this spell, we should get moving. I would rather not swim five miles.’

The spell gave out just when the island had come into their view, depositing them into the water again. Nothing to do now but swim.

It was exhausting. No matter how many strokes they made, the island did not seem to get any closer. 

Kima could tell Allura was at the end of her rope. She hadn’t seen battle in years, and they had fought a  _ dragon  _ today. On top of that, Allura had still been exhausted from maintaining the shield over Whitestone. Kima wasn’t surprised that this marathon swim session was threatening to overwhelm Allura.

‘Allie. Allie, just stop swimming, okay? Let’s float for a bit. You’re gonna drown even with Water Breathing cast on you.’

‘We can’t. The waves will push us back to where we started,’ Allura panted, barely keeping herself above water.

‘Alright, then just lean on me.’ She turned onto her back, made Allura do the same, and then pulled Allura onto her chest, doing what Allura had done earlier, and making herself into a floatation device.

‘When we get back,’ Allura panted, still kicking her legs to help move them forward, ‘I might take you up on your offer to go running with you.’

Kima chuckled. ‘With all the dragons defeated, we could both use the exercise.’

‘Yeah, once we rebuild Emon, we should,’ Allura sighed.

Kima ground her teeth. Right. Emon had pretty much been leveled with the ground. There was no “back” for them, not yet. Regardless, it wasn’t what they should be focussing on now anyway. Getting to any kind of land was the first priority.

A rogue wave washed over them, and despite Water Breathing still being active, Kima spluttered as the salt water invaded her lungs. She hacked up the water, Allura doing the same. Gods, if they got out of this, she was never going to the beach again.

‘Kima,’ Allura said between coughs, attempting to push off of her. ‘waves should not be coming from that side. There’s something in the water with us.’

‘Motherf-’ Kima cursed, pulling the dagger out of her belt. It felt incompetently small. She was sure there was a great joke in there somewhere but she would have to come up with it later when there wasn’t something stalking them from beneath the waves.

‘Where is it?’ Kima asked, scanning the choppy water for any movement that wasn’t them.

‘I don’t know. I think we should dive, the waves are making it impossible to see.’

Kima agreed. Their vision would be distorted under the water too, but at least the waves wouldn’t distract them as much.

‘Hold on to me, I don’t want to lose you!’ she shouted over the roar of the water.

Allura hooked her right arm through Kima’s left, pressing their backs together.

Despite the situation, Kima smiled. They had been in countless battles together, they knew what to do. Now, Kima couldn’t remember the two of them ever fighting some underwater horror in their underwear, but they had faced worse odds. Even if her dagger really was no more useful than a toothpick, and Allura was out of magic. Still, expanding their field of vision was a good start.

She knew she did not have to, but gulped down a last breath of air, and with Allura at her back, they sunk beneath the waves.

As soon as they dove beneath the surface, she saw what Allura had seen. It was impressive she hadn’t seen it before. The snake was massive, forty feet long at least, a body as thick as a tree trunk and the beast’s fangs made Kima’s dagger feel even smaller.

It was circling them, squeezing closer and closer. Its teeth flashing dangerously in the filtered sunlight. They would pierce through her linen shirt as easily as a hot knife through butter. Oh, how she missed her armor. And her sword. Her Holy Avenger would have made this serpent into so many pairs of snakeskin boots.

Allura’s voice sounded in her head. ‘We can’t beat it. I’ve got nothing, Kima. Just some Firebolts and I can’t imagine they are going to be any use.’ 

Kima ground her teeth, the snake was closing in. Instead of answering, Kima gripped Allura tighter, muttering a simple incantation under her breath.

She heard Allura scream in protest, the actual words lost but the sentiment clear. Her holy symbol started to glow with white light, the glow racing down her arm, spreading over Allura’s body, covering her in the same dull glow.

She’d had enough magic left for one simple protection spell. Allura was right, they couldn’t defeat it, not without weapons or magic. All they could do was prolong the inevitable, and she was going to make damn sure that Allura made it out of here. 

After a night’s rest, Allura could teleport herself home, she could call for help. Kima could do none of that. No, Allura was getting out of there, even if she wasn’t.

She unhooked her arm from Allura’s. Allura was trying to hold on, but they never had been equal in physical strength, and Kima freed herself quite easily.

Her eyes met Allura’s as she spun around, trying to convey what the water wouldn’t allow her to say out loud.  _ Goodbye. I’m sorry. I love you. _

Kima kicked her feet, catapulting herself over to the snake, stabbing her dagger into its hide.

The snake reared up, coiling around her and lashing up with its head in an attempt to bite her.

Kima attempted to dodge out of the way, but she was much slower underwater than she was on land, and the monster’s jaw closed around her torso. If she had worn her armor, the snake’s teeth might have chipped on impact. As all they met was soft cotton and flesh, they sunk easily into her chest.

She might be under Water Breathing’s influence, she still needed functional lungs for it to work. She couldn’t even use the last dregs of her healing magic to fix herself as the snake started to coil around her, pressing her arms to her sides. Slowly squeezing the life out of her.

She struggled in the snake’s grasp, but between the lack of air and the wounds in her chest, it wasn’t enough to break free.

The last thought on her mind as her world started to fade to black was that with her in its grasp, at least Allura would be free to escape.

Out of the darkness, there was a sudden flash of light. Cold and blue, like lightning.

Kima felt the snake’s body constrict tighter around her, before loosening completely.

_ Allura _ . She should have known her stubborn girlfriend wasn’t just going to let her sacrifice herself as planned.

Allura grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the stunned snake’s coil and pulling her along, away from the snake.

Whatever Allura had done to it, it hadn’t been enough to kill it.

They made it about 50 feet of Allura dragging Kima along before the snake started moving again.

It shot forward. Moving at twice their speed.

This was it. She had lost her concentration on the spell that was meant to keep Allura safe, and she couldn’t take another hit. There was nothing more they could do now.

Kima mumbled a thank you to Bahamut. She could almost accept dying here if Allura made it out. Allura, it seemed, was a little less accepting of their circumstances, continuing to move them along, towards land.

Kima looked at the serpent. She was going to go out staring her enemy straight in the face, not hiding from death behind closed eyes.

She wondered briefly why it wasn’t attacking them, why it seemed to be laying in wait. Maybe now it had found them no longer a threat, it had decided to play with its food.

Then, without warning, the snake turned tail and swam away.

Moments later, Allura dragged them onto the sandy shores of the island.

Something had scared the giant serpent off, and whatever it was, Kima wasn’t thrilled about staying on its island.

She didn’t have much time to worry about it, however, as her world once again started to go dark around its edges. Her failing lungs were finally quitting on her.

The bitter herbal taste of a healing potion brought her back.

‘You have to stop doing that, you know? Trying to sacrifice yourself for me,’ Allura said, poking at a fire with a stick. Kima could tell from the violent jabs she used to do it that Allura was upset.

Kima sat up, groaning at the pain in her chest. The potion had done enough to restore her breathing, but she was far from fully healed.

‘Did you make a fire before healing me?’ Kima asked, deflecting Allura’s very accurate and appropriate accusation.

‘You took a while to come to, I was getting cold.’ She turned around then, and Kima could see the tears in her eyes. ‘How could you do that? Think I was just going to leave you there. Think I was going to be okay with you dying? Do you honestly think I would ever be okay after that? Two times today. Two times, you told me to leave you behind. Get it through your thick skull, Kima,  I am not going to do that! I am never going to do that! Gods, you are so stubborn.’

‘Allie-’

‘No! Don’t ‘Allie’ me! You have to stop! You have to stop doing that. To me, to yourself. Just stop, Kima. Your life is no less important than anyone else’s, least of all mine. I cannot live without you. Not anymore. I don’t think I ever could. So if you want to protect me, fine. Do it by protecting yourself.’

Kima got up, sitting down next to Allura, inching her hand towards hers. ‘Will you let me speak?’

‘No, you have spoken enough,’ Allura huffed, snatching her hand away.

‘Now who is being stubborn? I am not going to say I am sorry for what I did. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was being practical, Allura. The first time my armor was dragging us down, you could make it without me, there was no need to for us both to die. Just like there was no need for us both to die in the snake attacks. On top of that, you can get out of here. I can’t. I can’t contact anyone. I can’t teleport. I can barely even swim. I would have died here anyway. Not today, not tomorrow, but eventually. You could have lived, Allie. I love you. Do you really think I would be okay with you dying when you did not need to? When there was something I could have done. It is why I stepped through the portal, it is why I told you to let me go, and it is why I spent my last spell on you.’

Allura’s face contorted as she chewed on her words.

‘You are so  _ damn  _ stubborn.’

Kima shrugged and chuckled. ‘I can say the same for you, you refuse to let me do the noble thing and die to save my partner.’

‘If you spent half as much energy trying to save yourself as you as trying to sacrificing yourself, I wouldn’t have to be.’

Kima bumped her shoulder against Allura’s. ‘I am sorry I upset you. You know that is never my intention. While I can’t promise you I will never do something noble and self-sacrificing again, I will promise you I will never do it again unless there is absolutely no other way out. And you have proven to me today, many times, that maybe I do tend to think the end is coming a little early.’

‘I still don’t like it,’ Allura sniffed, wiping her tears.

‘Well, you also threw yourself at a giant snake to save me against my express wishes, so I would say we are even.’

‘Shut up,’ Allura said, crashing their lips together.

The kiss came quite unexpected but was far from unwelcome.

‘You’re an idiot. I love you,’ Allura whispered as she pulled away from the kiss, drawing Kima into her arms.

‘I am an idiot, and I love you too. Can I have my sword back now? In case the giant snake comes back.’

‘I don’t think that will be a problem. From what I can tell, we are the only living things on the entire island.’

Kima didn’t want to ask why. She really didn’t. The sense of dread in her stomach didn’t need any more fuel. Yet, she couldn’t help herself.

‘What do you mean?’

‘We are back on Vascon. Opash’s island. We trekked through the forest for hours today, and there wasn’t as much as a single track. No insects either. No, everything on this island is quite dead, and I think the other animals can sense it. The giant snake sure did not want to pursue us into shallow waters.’

‘That is not nearly as comforting as it should be.’

‘No, this island is quite cursed.’.

Allura handed her the bag of holding.

‘Do you want your dress?’ Kima asked as she started pulling their things from the inside.

‘Yes, it can dry overnight. I assume everything in there is quite wet.’

‘Yeah,’ Kima groaned, pulling a soggy ration pack from the bag. ‘I don’t think your trick with holding it upside down worked, babe.’

‘On this day, why should it have?’ Allura sighed, breaking a piece away from the biscuit and sticking it into her mouth anyway.

With her sword back on her back, Kima felt a little more in control and positive about their island sleepover.

‘So, what do we do now?’

‘We sleep.’

‘And then? I don’t think teleportation will get us out of here, and I would rather not end up in the middle of a volcano next time, no offense.’ The idea of doing this whole swimming marathon all over again alone was exhausting, actually doing it - or something even worse - might well make her give up on the whole thing.

Allura sighed, ‘No, I don’t think so either. I will Send Keyleth a message in the morning once I have recovered my magic. I hope she will be able to pick us up.’

Kima nodded. It was the smart thing to do. It did mean that they had to spend a night on an island even giant snakes seemed to avoid, which wasn’t very appealing.

‘You sleep, I’ll keep watch. Just because there is nothing alive out here, doesn’t mean that dead things won’t try and kill us.’

‘You’re hurt, Kima. You need your rest to recover as well. We can take shifts.’

Instead of arguing with Allura, she nodded. ‘Alright, I’ll take first watch then.’

Allura laid down, resting her head in Kima’s lap. ‘If you don’t wake me for my turn, I will leave you here in the morning.’

Kima chuckled, of course, Allura would immediately know what she was up to. ‘I will wake you. Promise. I like to sleep too. Now, rest.’ She combed her fingers through Allura’s hair, humming the melody of an old halfling lullaby under her breath. It was barely a minute before Allura was fast asleep, which had to be some sort of record for the insomniac woman.

She continued to hum the song. Her mother used to sing it to her when she was small. As far as Kima knew, her mother had no magic of any kind, yet there was something about this song that made Kima suspect otherwise.

As Allura slept, Kima picked at the saltwater logged rations. They were disgusting, but she was hungry. Oh, what she wouldn’t do for a chicken leg right about now.

She watched the waves crest on the sand, it was almost peaceful if you forget that this was the dead and cursed island of a necromancer, as well as a former dragon lair.

She gripped her holy symbol in her free hand, extending her senses to see what was unseen. No undead anywhere near. It was of little comfort, the range didn’t extend very far, and there was plenty of nighttime still ahead of them.

It wasn’t until the sun began to color the horizon in its pinks and oranges, that Kima felt it okay to let her guard down just a little.

She had said she would wake Allura, she hadn’t said when. Right now, she was thinking a good time would be after Allura got a full night’s rest.

Once the sun had fully risen - bringing some warmth to this rock of death - Kima gently shook Allura’s shoulder to wake her.

Allura took one look at the sky, then at Kima but she didn’t say anything.

‘Let’s just get home, okay? I’ll sleep then.’ Kima said, brushing some sand from Allura’s cheek.

Allura wiggled her fingers, the nails and tips coloring dark blue: her magic was back.

‘You’re impossible.’

‘It is one of my best qualities,’ Kima grinned, starting to put her semi-dry armor.

Allura didn’t reply, instead casting the spell necessary to contact Keyleth.

‘Keyleth, it’s Allura. Kima and I are alive, stranded on the east side of Vascon, Opash’s island. A tree-portal would be most welcome.’

Kima could not hear what Keyleth said in response, but judging by Allura’s expression, it was incomprehensible.

‘She’s crying. Now she is calling for Vax’ildan. Still crying. At least she heard me,’ Allura said as the spell ended. ‘I think she will come get us. I hope. I will try again in ten minutes to see if she has calmed down.’

Kima chuckled, trying to put her armor back on before realizing the straps were still cut.

‘Alliee,’ she whined. ‘Can you fix my armor while we wait for Keyleth to stop crying?’

‘Yeah, let’s get you back into your hard outer shell. If you keep throwing yourself at monsters like that I would rather you wear it.’

Allura was nearly done repairing the armor when two creatures broke free from the treeline and ran onto the beach.

Kima grabbed her blade but lowered it again when she noticed the two half-elves stumbling towards them.

Keyleth and Vax’ildan. Here to rescue them.

Keyleth ran straight at Allura, wrapping her in a big hug. ‘You’re okay! You are both okay! I am so sorry we left! But Scanlan, and we didn’t know where you had gone. We could just see you in the ocean. If we had known you were so close we would have stayed and gotten you out,’ Keyleth cried.

Meanwhile, Kima patted Vax’ildan on his back to get him to release her from a very similar bear hug. Trinket had obviously exuded his influence on his uncle, Kima felt like she was being smothered.

‘Keyleth, it’s alright. We’re okay,’ Allura said, stroking Keyleth’s back. ‘We didn’t expect you to wait for us. We are just very grateful you came here to pick us up. Building a boat and sailing back would have been tedious.’

‘Scanlan- is he…?’ Kima inquired.

Vax wiped his eyes. ‘He’s alive, sleeping it off as we speak.’

‘Thank the gods,’ Kima whispered. Scanlan was a pain in the ass, but he didn’t deserve to die for that. Definitely not by any other hand than hers.

‘How- where-’ Keyleth started, trying to talk through her tears. ‘How did you get back here? We scanned the ocean for you. I scried. We couldn’t see you anywhere.’

‘We were quite a ways off, and underwater for a good part of it after I managed to cast Water Breathing. After that, we just had to find land.’

‘That’s amazing. We are all so glad you are okay.’

‘Great, let’s go. I need to get some sleep,’ Kima said. She had the feeling Keyleth and Allura could talk for hours about what exactly had happened and what magic had been used to accomplish it.

‘Right, of course. Let’s go home! Can you believe it is all over? That all the dragons are truly dead?’

As she followed Keyleth and Vax back to the only living tree on the island, Kima thought about that. The dragon’s were indeed all dead, an incredible accomplishment, but it was far from over. Emon had been razed, Allura’s city had been destroyed. Westruun, her own home was scarcely more than rubble. The dragon’s might be dead, undoing all the hurt they caused would take months, if not longer.

She looked over at Allura, who was being dragged along by a still crying but ecstatic Keyleth.

Kima wasn’t going to let Allura go again. Not now, not ever.

Her hand brushed against the pocket on her gambeson. She doubted there would be anything left of the letter Vord had sent, but she knew the words.

_ ‘Come back once the dragons have been defeated or not at all.’ _

It really wasn’t a hard choice to make.

She took Allura’s free hand as they stepped through the portal and out the other end. Vord could find a new paladin to do his dirty work, Kima had a city to rebuild.


End file.
